Jaycee Woods

Harvest of Blood, the first chapter in my draft novel Boudica and The Butcher, had a few goals including establish the story world (a Second American Civil War), create both dislike & sympathy in the reader for The Butcher, and introduce the heroine Boudica as sympathetic for the reader. The last 2 creating the conflict to be resolved by the story.

I used a rebel medic character as the perspective of the reader. She was able to question The Butcher, challenge him, and criticize him. I think this effectively would leave the reader with a negative judgement of him. But he is not the villain of the story as war is; however, at the start he is the personification of war in all its brutality. Meanwhile, her questions also reveal a few sympathetic points about him which leave her trying to reconcile & understand his apparent contradiction.

The plot is simple. Rebel medic tends to an unconscious female rebel soldier (Boudica) on a recent battlefield. The medic is surprised to find an enemy soldier (The Butcher) standing over herself. He has been delivering the coup de grace to the injured male rebels remaining on the battlefield. Observing that the rebel medic lacks supplies, he gives her supplies & tells her to redo the first aid. After he orders her to make a litter to carry the injured rebel back to the Union camp where there is adequate medical supplies & food.

The work gets done by the dialogue which focuses on why he is actively ending most injured rebel soldiers but acting to save this one.